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Monday, April 18, 2016

Raspberry stout is an excellent flavor. When you ferment it in bourbon barrels, you really get a bonus. But what did Hardywood Park Craft Brewery expect when they put vanilla beans in with it? Well, I found out when I tested this brew at Alexandria's Rustico that Thursday night.

I had tried the Bourbon Barrel Raspberry Stout right here, as some of you might have remembered and it rated pretty high in my estimation, so I figured that this stout would be good, but a definite second place.

Man, was I wrong. This raspberry stout is a completely different, though excellent tasting beer. The difference came in the way it handled the vanilla beans. It presented the vanilla beans rather than mixing them with the raspberries and the stout. Rather than being a raspberry stout with a vanilla beans chaser, it was actually a vanilla bean stout with a subtle yet substantial raspberry chaser. When you go and taste it, don't expect the raspberries to be a really strong flavor, but expect to taste the vanilla beans up front. This is very much as raspberry swirl in vanilla ice cream rather than a taste of vanilla in a strong raspberry sorbet, if I can extend the ice cream analogy. The result is a very tasty, yet different, raspberry and vanilla bean variant.

The Bourbon Barrel Raspberry Stout with Vanilla Beans by Hardywood Park Craft Brewery is a 12.4% ABV and a 50 IBU beverage. It is a Barrel Series Beer and is available in the Spring.